Protecting you
by Ellenlome
Summary: Naruto is four; Naruto is seventeen. Both times, it is raining. Both times he sees a man who's dead and gone. Understanding comes only with time. Yondaime and Naruto, an angsty sorta-family fic. COMPLETE, One-shot


Naruto had known it would be a bad day when he woke up that morning

**-oO0 ****Protecting you 0Oo-**

Naruto had known it would be a Bad Day when he woke up that morning. Of course, most days were bad for the 4 year-old child, and the good days he would count on one hand if he'd known how. But he didn't know how, like so many other things, like why the villagers looked at him with such cold, hateful eyes.

Hate.

It was an emotion he knew all too well, and the first he put a name to – something no child should have to, but he'd learnt nonetheless, because he had to, if only to make sense of what he saw everyday, everywhere, from near-everyone. The second emotion Naruto put a name to was loneliness, and it hurt more than anything else he'd ever known since.

What made Naruto feel this would be a Bad Day, as opposed to a bad day, wasn't that ominous feeling in the air that comes before a storm, making everyone around jumpy and irritable. Not that Naruto would know, being only four, but it didn't mean he couldn't feel it.

It wasn't the way the lady at the orphanage threw him out so he'd land painfully on his face, one arm twisted painfully underneath him, his wrist most likely 'sprained', as the doctors said when he was in the hospital (too often).

When she yelled at him not to come back, he wasn't really phased. That happened everyday too, and she always let him back in anyway. The children's snickers in the background were normal too, and the cold stares from the passerbys too. He was used to it by now, although his chest still hurt as much as the first time (_Stop,_ he'd tell it, _just stop_, but he could never quite do it).

No, none of those things let him know this was a Bad Day. But when he raised his carefully blank eyes to the brown-haired woman (he knew better than to cry, it only made things worse) and saw her smile, he shivered and thought: _'Today is going to be Bad'_ and knew he was right.

He turned away from the orphanage, his feet leading him to the park and holding his sprained wrist in the other hand carefully. It would be gone the next day, so why care? And tried to push away the growing fear in his guts.

On his way to the park, he passed several houses and shops, among them a clock-maker's shop, with a giant clock proudly displayed outside to advertise their expertise to prospective customers. It was a really well made clock that, on top of telling you what time it is, would also give you the date, and the predicted weather for the day. Had Naruto known how to read, this is what it would have said:

_October 10__th_

_W__eather today: Stormy_

As it started to rain and thunder cracked, people hurrying inside their warm abodes, Naruto's path was blocked by several pairs of legs. He tried going around them, as he usually did, head bent against the wind and rain and glares, but they moved to intercept, and pushed him to the side. To an alley.

Naruto didn't know how to read, but as the blows started raining on him as much as the water from the heavens, and black closed in around the edges, his only thought was: _'I knew today was a Bad Day…'_

A searing pain in his side, and he knew no more.

-.-.-.-.-.-

When he next awoke, the storm was still ongoing, even fiercer than before though Naruto knew it must have been a few hours since it started. He shivered, and the small action sent burning pain all throughout his body. His half-lidded eyes took in the red flowing away from him in rivulets without really understanding, his four year old mind struggling with the pain of his injuries. He wanted to cry out for help, but knew it was useless – no one ever came, why would this time be different.

Thunder cracked once more overhead, blinding him for an instant. As if in answer to it, the rain and wind picked up, and Naruto felt even colder than before, and wished the rain would stop. He didn't know it was because of the increasingly bad weather that he was still alive – that the men who had planned to kill him had thought it too much of a hassle to stay and get drenched to the bone when it was obvious that the demon-child would not survive its wounds.

After a few more minutes, he could feel his knees weren't shattered anymore, and that his ribs were no longer piercing his lungs, because he didn't have that bubbly feeling everytime he breathed. So he tried to stand, painfully pushing himself to his hands and knees, and nearly passed out again, but sheer stubborness kept him going, until he was standing on his own two feet once more, if a bit wobbly.

He took one step, then two…then he faltered and fell to the ground again, his eyes closing in anticipation of the blow which never came. Instead, two strong and warm arms surroundered him, craddling his small frame as if he'd break (he just might) and holding him against an equally warm chest, warm despite the freezing rain and wind.

The man's (because it had to be a man, even at four he knew no woman had a flat chest like _that_) grip on him shifted a bit, and then warm and slightly damp fabric was drawn over his head, shielding him from the elements.

Naruto struggled to open his eyes a bit more, to focus on the hazy face above his. When he did, his blue eyes met equally blue eyes, framed by wild blond hair not even affected by all the rain drenching it.

But the blue eyes weren't cold like the villagers', and it took the blond child a moment to remember whom the gaze was like: the man had the same eyes as the Old Man with the funny hat who sometimes visited him. Naruto blinked. There was something more to the man's gaze, but he couldn't name it. It made him feel warm and happy and _full_, a bit like ramen, but stronger, much stronger.

The stranger smiled, and Naruto wanted to smile back, but all he managed was a gurgle as more blood dribbled out the corner of his mouth. The blond man frowned, though the warm feeling was still there, and a hand came up to brush the blood away, cupping his cheek for a moment. The wind still howled, and the rain still fell. The thunder and lightning were dancing across the clouds even faster now, but Naruto and the man didn't hear or see any of it, caught in the blue eyes that stared back at their own.

"I'm so sorry, Naruto."

The man's voice was a soft baritone, like a warm breeze, and Naruto felt safe. He closed his eyes, content in this stranger's arms – a flash of yellow light against his closed eyelids, but he was already sleeping.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Years later, when thunder and lightning once more dance across the sky, and the winds and rain are as strong and cold as that night, and he is bleeding away with the water again, he remembers that night.

He watches his blood flow away with half-lidded eyes once more, and he wishes to feel the warm arms around him once more, and to hear the soft baritone voice again. But instead it's Sakura that he sees bent over him, worry in her eyes and a smile on her lips because they're still alive and _they've done it_, and Oto is defeated and Orochimaru dead. He can see the green glow of healing chakra reflected in her eyes. She's telling him that everything is fine, that Konoha and all their friends are alive if not all well. Tells him that she's proud of him and can't wait for when he is made Rokudaime Hokage, because Tsunade-shishou has been bragging about it since he turned 17 and a jounin.

But his eyes are not focused on her, but beyond her, on the ghostly figure with blue eyes like his, and spiky blond hair that the rain cannot bring down. The Yondaime is standing behind the pink-haired woman, smiling at him, and Naruto remembers.

"It's ok," he says to the spirit. "I understand."

And Sakura is confused momentarily, but he doesn't care and smiles back at the man. He is safe.

-

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**AN:** Well, I'm not sure how I feel about this. It kinda wrote itself. Naruto and Minato (Yondaime), a family fic, sorta. Inspired by the following picture (take the spaces out): teh-akuma-yoru.deviantart. com/art/Protecting-You-74250785

**p.s:** To those reading "Firebird", I haven't abandonned the fic, and am quite actively working on it. I just have to deal with life first though. This fic just had to be written though, I'm sure you know what I mean.


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